- What an awesome day!
- Had another profession of faith and then afterward we had 13 baptisms!
- The challenge as a portable church is how to do things like communion and baptism in an environment that’s not really conducive for things like that.
- For baptism it meant setting up a swimming pool out back.
- Chad, his boys and Andre set it up last night at 10:30pm and began the long process of filling it up.
- The fire department was supposed to do it but they stopped after someone complained their water made them sick. :)
- We were concerned whether the pool was going to collapse but it held up fine.
- As for the day itself set-up went well, nothing out of the ordinary.
- During run-through time I gave everyone instructions on how , who and when we’d start tearing down so we could get out to the baptism and have the theater ready for movies to begin.
- Glad we did that because when it came time later in the morning, everything ran like clockwork.
- For some reason energy was down today in the Experience but the band as usual did a great job leading.
- Today was the last in the Jonah series…you can listen to what I consider the shocking conclusion here.
- Amazing how we so often want forgiveness for ourselves but judgment for others.
- The plan was for the band to come forward during the prayer time and get ready to start tearing down once I started doing announcements.
- Instead they started during the prayer itself…
- Wow was that hard…
- I’m trying to lead a very Holy moment and dodging people left and right who are literally taking the floor out right from under me.
- Still God is amazing and despite everything, we still had a young lady come into a relationship with Jesus!
- By the time I was done with announcements, the only thing left to tear down was sound and projection…amazing how quickly they did everything.
- I dismissed everyone to exit out the back door and I ran off to get changed and put the closing touches on things I needed to do before exiting the theater.
- Here’s a link to photos from the baptism.
- Huge thanks to my brother-in-law Brian for traveling in from out of town to take these…also to my nephew Jordan for shooting some video…can’t wait to see what he puts together.
- Check other people’s walls on Facebook for more photos…I’ve seen them starting to be posted.
- Got to admit I got choked up a number of times during the baptisms…one of my favorite things to do in ministry.
- What an honor to be a part of such a special moment in each of these people’s lives.
- Special mention for Dylan Krull…I remember him being born and dedicated and so many other milestones in his young life…now to get to baptize him is so awesome.
- Big thanks to Bill & Meghan Butler for building changing rooms in the trailer so people didn’t have to go home wet.
- Although I was amazed how warm the water was so I didn’t mind staying wet.
- As the guys started collapsing the pool they let too much go at first and it ran down the sidewalk and right into another theater!!!
- Luckily nothing was going on in that one yet and we were able to go in and clean it up…oops.
- Other than that it was a tremendously successful day.
- Best part was I ended up leaving the theater basically at the same time I normally do!
- Next week we begin the “God at the Box Office” series by looking at the spiritual lessons from the newest Transformers movie.
- Please share our commercial for the series with as many people as possible and keep handing out the tickets.
- The commercial can be found here on YouTube or here on Facebook.
- Can’t wait…I love doing series like these!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another great day!
- Weird not starting the day by meeting Mike to put out signs.
- He missed his first day today which now only leave Chad from the original group that has not yet missed a day.
- Thanks to John and Sara Fox for taking care of the signs today.
- Not sure how we did it but everything got set-up about 1 1/2 feet off center on the stage today.
- Weird since we used the same marks as usual as a guide…looked funny.
- During our team meeting Lisa and I were surprised with a cake for our birthdays & anniversary.
- Great to have the Bricker’s and Deihl’s pay a visit today from Chambersburg.
- Loved the new song the band did today called Manifesto.
- Poor Bill…the bridge part is essentially the Lord’s Prayer except you’ve got to sing it all in 1 breath…he’s been struggling with it but during warm-ups this morning he was nailing it.
- Mmm not so much during the Experience but he pulled it together and it still was a powerful moment.
- Great to also bring back the song Beautiful Things which was a major part of our Easter Experience.
- I wrapped up the iLife series today by talking about how to get moral margin in your life regardless of whether you’re a teen, single or married.
- I had no idea the impact the message was going to have.
- Person after person came up afterward saying it was one of the best messages they had heard.
- That’s a very humbling thing to hear but I’m glad it immediately resonated with people…now I hope they apply it.
- This will be hard to describe but I hear all the time, “Gilbert I love how real you are”.
- Honestly I can’t imagine preaching any other way.
- We also had 2 more people make a decision to become a follower of Jesus today!
- That’s now 93 since we launched 7 months ago!
- Can’t wait for the Thrive series to start next week…it’s going to be awesome and everyone attending will be given a special gift that will help you apply what Chad’s going to be talking about.
- Big thanks to my niece, Taylor Duda and to Kiara Pornel for all their help serving each Sunday. These two young ladies will be going off for the summer and today was their last day for awhile. Thanks again ladies…serve Jesus as you travel!
- Folks God is doing some amazing stuff in and through us…keep it up and I promise you one thing…The Best is Yet to Come!
Inside Today’s Experience
- I give up!
- What I mean by that is…I give up trying to figure out attendance patterns.
- Today being Memorial Day weekend, most churches see a dip in attendance.
- This week I personally knew of 18 people that said they wouldn’t be with us…who knows how many I didn’t know about.
- So my expectation was a really low attendance day…
- So of course we end up with our 2nd highest attendance ever…God amazes me.
- Best of all we had 5 more people pray today for Jesus forgiveness and leadership!
- Funny thing is I didn’t plan on offering a call for commitment today, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me at the end to do it any way.
- Glad I listened!
- As for the rest of the day, we couldn’t have asked for it to be much smoother.
- In fact, the band got set-up, had their warm-up and run through and still had so much time that they were actually able to do some Thursday night practice kind of stuff.
- Big thanks to Kristie Frownfelter for stepping up and leading the Children’s Ministry today while Chelsea was away on vacation.
- I peeked in and it looked like you were doing an awesome job.
- Speaking of an awesome job, the pic for this post (sorry it’s so dark) is of our tech team. Andy, Mike, and Cris have 3 computers to run with the assorted programs we use plus then the sound board.
- They consistently accomplish the best thing a tech team can do…not be noticed.
- If the technology itself or the operators through error draw attention, that means the attention is off of Jesus. So thankful to have a team that knows what they are doing and do it with excellence.
- Mike though did do a funny thing this morning when he and I went out to set up signs. We got to an intersection that we put a sign out at. The plan is for me to jump out, reach in the back to get the sign, then Mike takes off and turns around while I’m putting the sign in the appropriate place. This is all done at a busy intersection and it’s best if the light is red when we get there. Today though it was green and so imagine my surprise when I jump out and Mike starts to take off before I’ve been able to get the sign out of the back. Not sure if this is making sense, but it was funny.
- This was the 5th part to our iLife series and I’m not sure why but on Thursday I started to get really excited about today’s topic which was gaining professional margin.
- Was also nervous a bit though because the one visual illustration I wanted to do involved me juggling. Now I have juggled for years but in order for the illustration to really work it was vital that I not drop any. You’ll have to listen to the message to understand why. Whew…was able to do it!
- Always great to be able to look out and seeing a visiting pastor. Today we were excited to have Charlie Hostetter and his wife Linda with us from the Mechanicsburg First Church of God.
- Charlie said they wanted to come check us out because they’ve heard so much.
- Never really sure how to take that since as much negative is said about us as positive.
- They seemed to like it though and we were able to provide Linda with a pair of complimentary ear plugs in case the music got too loud for her.
- I know it seems silly but it’s the little things like this (and the mints and hand lotion we provide in the restrooms) that really help create wow experiences for people.
- Noticed afterward a lot more people hanging out in the lobby. That’s great that people are getting connected with one another. Technically we need to get out of the theater ASAP, but as long as were not in the way, then I’d love to see these interactions continuing.
- Had lunch with my mom and dad today and then Lisa and I went swimming. Our pool is already at a very comfy 82 degrees…tomorrow should help even more.
- On a personal note, today marked the one year anniversary since my last day on staff at the Chambersburg First Church of God.
- Wow do I miss them tremendously. At the same time though I’m so grateful for the new relationships we’ve made here in Harrisburg as we’re getting ExponentialChurch.tv launched.
- I have no doubt we’re exactly where God wants us but it still doesn’t make it easy to be away from so many great friends. Thanks United and CFCOG for 3 awesome years together.
- Next week at Exponential we’ll wrap-up the iLife series by discovering how to get moral margin in your life.
- I want to talk to 3 groups of people…teens, singles and married couples about how to make sure when it comes to purity (especially sexual purity) you have the margin that God desires.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another great day!
- 3 more first time professions of faith!
- One of our highest attendance days ever!
- Some cool stories of how people are applying this series to their lives and getting margin!
- Got to meet the 3 interns we’ll be working with this summer!
- Mike Smith was in the house!
- Lisa, my parents and myself were unexpectedly treated to a free lunch when a great couple from ECTV spotted us and had one of our “You Matter” cards delivered to the table! Problem was the waitress didn’t speak English very well (Japanese restaurant) so we didn’t fully understand what was happening until we went to pay and a waiter finally explained they had picked-up our bill!
- We convinced the theater to turn the AC on which made for a lot cooler Experience!
- Ok I think I’m out of statements that end with an exclamation point. Seriously!
- Ok seriously this time…it was a good day.
- Nothing too out of the ordinary except we again have equipment starting to feel the effects of the wear and tear of getting set-up and torn down each week.
- It was weird…last week I was looking forward to the message but didn’t feel good about it. Today was the opposite…I wasn’t feeling good about it going in but felt really good about it at the end,
- Guess you’ll have to listen for yourself.
- Essentially the message was about the practical steps to achieving financial margin. I think what I liked though were two specific illustrations that I used that when it finally dawned on people where I was going with them, I could audibly hear the “ah-ha” moments coming out of people’s mouths in a variety of ways.
- At the end I was able to share some of the awesome things we’ve been able to do in just 7 short months.
- Things like now 86 first time professions, over $20000 given in a variety of ways to help the community, incredible stories of lives being changed and transformed, etc.
- However, as I said, there are many other things that God has called us to do that we simply can’t yet because of finances.
- We’re not in trouble in any way, but I know God has so much more He wants us to do.
- So if you’d like to contribute financially, we’d greatly appreciate your support.
- I continue to be blown away by the incredible team God has assembled in such a short time and the things He’s allowed us to experience together as a church in only 7 short months…however…listen to me and listen carefully…
- The Best is Yet to Come!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Today was exactly what we had hoped it would be.
- We wanted to capture the momentum of Easter and have the week after be just as big or bigger.
- So to kick-off our iLife series we gave away 4 FREE iPads.
- It worked great…we by far had our highest attended day ever other than launch day.
- Best of all, 3 more people prayed to begin a relationship with Jesus!
- That makes 83 now in the 6 months we’ve been meeting!
- So proud of my team and all they do from parking lot to seat to help prepare people’s hearts for the preaching of God’s Word each week.
- Set-up and everything was a bit different today because Bill (our worship pastor) was away for the weekend.
- This meant everyone pitching in to do the things he normally does which of course meant longer time and a couple of “where the heck does this plug in” moments.
- Bill did though create the new stage set that has all the iLife icons…pretty cool.
- Huge thanks to Aaron Hoke for stepping up and leading the band this weekend…he did a tremendous job.
- It was also great to see JD Ridenour who came up to check out our tech stuff for help with his new job he’s taken with LifeHouse Church East in Hagerstown, MD.
- JD’s pastor (Patrick Grach) and I were both in Orlando this week and had lunch together this past Thursday. Grateful to Patrick for his encouragement and the team LifeHouse sent to us when we did our Preview Experiences back before launch.
- Speaking of Orlando…being gone all week with Chad at the Exponential Church Conference meant my normal routine was disturbed this week.
- Even though I wrote today’s message long ago, my normal routine has me working with it throughout the week so that by the time Sunday rolls around its completely a part of me.
- This week was different though and I thought it came through in my delivery…not my best effort but I think the point was still made…
- …we live on the edge so often emotionally, financially, relationally, in our schedules and we’re in danger of disaster.
- You can listen here to see what God has to say about that.
- It was weird that during my illustration where I stood up on the arms of the theater seats I actually felt really comfortable…sort of ruined my point…although I think everyone got what I was saying.
- Congrats to those who won iPads…and thanks to all those who invited so many people come out and be a part of today’s Experience.
- This week I’m away again…this time at our denomination’s annual conference.
- I’ll be speaking briefly Monday and then I’m teaching two workshops on Tuesday…please keep me in prayer.
- Also, our band has been asked to provide the music for Monday night’s activities, so keep them in prayer as well as they get off early from work, travel to the site, set-up, play, tear down then return home.
- Next Sunday we’ll continue the iLife series by looking at how to build margin into your schedule so you do and become all that God has for you!